Independent readers were quick to voice their frustration – and, in many cases, outright anger – at a Budget they felt serves Labour’s political interests rather than the country’s needs.
Many in our community felt Rachel Reeves’s £26bn package of tax rises lands hardest on those already feeling squeezed by a cost of living crisis, piling new burdens onto taxpayers who say they are running out of financial headway.
With income tax thresholds frozen until 2030–31 and more than 1.7 million people set to be dragged into higher bands, several readers questioned how a government elected on a promise to protect “working people” could justify what amounts to a sweeping stealth tax.
Others pointed to the pension contribution changes and cuts to ISA allowances as further evidence that those who save, plan and work hard are being treated as an easy target.
The scrapping of the two-child benefit cap proved especially contentious, with many accusing the government of rewarding some households while demanding greater sacrifices from others. And yet, alongside these hikes, growth forecasts have weakened – leaving
Across the board, readers were doubtful that the pain of this Budget will restore confidence in the economy.
Here’s what you had to say:
Kick in the teeth
As a middle-class worker currently being taxed at around 62 per cent, I find it completely unacceptable that Labour is lifting the two-child cap. Having children is a personal choice, one that should be taken responsibly.
Also, hitting pensions through salary sacrifice is another kick in the teeth. I'm all for fair taxation, but we're so far from it now. Not shocked, but still deeply disappointed.
Squeezed middle
This Budget is an unmitigated disaster that punishes responsibility and rewards irresponsibility. Rachel Reeves’s decision to extend the freeze on income tax thresholds is a brutal stealth tax on working people, the very group Labour swore to protect. It’s a blatant betrayal that will slowly bleed households dry.
Meanwhile, the move to tax pension contributions over £2,000 and cap the cash ISA allowance is a direct assault on aspiration and financial prudence. It tells anyone trying to save and provide for their future that they are the new piggy bank for a government with no pro-growth vision.
But the most galling measure is the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap. This is not compassion; it is economic illiteracy. It actively incentivises irresponsible behaviour by signalling that the state will foot the bill for having more children, regardless of one's ability to provide for them. It is a policy that will encourage larger families at the direct expense of hard-working taxpayers, who are already being squeezed by the other tax hikes.
The Tories are right on this one: this is a Budget for Benefits Street, and it's being paid for by the squeezed middle who play by the rules. A truly disastrous set of priorities.
Desperate to please party members
Given the spectacular mismanagement of the lead-up to this Budget, it seemed rather fitting that the OBR joined in and accidentally released a link to their report two hours before the Chancellor even got to her feet.
After weeks of expectation management of breaking their manifesto by increasing income tax, yet another eleventh-hour U-turn. As the saying goes, you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb – and this Budget has all the hallmarks of a Chancellor who is more desperate to please her own party members and hang on to her own position than do the right thing for the economy and the country, which would have been to increase income tax transparently and not behind the smokescreen of yet more fiscal drag.
We have a welfare bill that is accelerating out of control, yet she has lifted the cap on child benefit; a stagnant economy and a tax burden already at its highest since the 1940s; yet more disingenuous income tax rises through fiscal drag, which will not only hit the very poorest in society but once again target the same group of middle and higher earners whose spending is needed to generate economic growth.
Incompetence or unwillingness?
Reeves could have brought England into line with Scotland, and brought back the highest brackets of income tax that only apply to those with the highest incomes. But that would break a promise not to raise taxes on working people, so instead she breaks that same promise but in a way that increases the tax on the lowest paid.
Is this incompetence, or unwillingness to bend to pressure from the Tufton Street oligarchs that appear to dictate the policies of this cabinet? Judging by the combination of intentional and unintentional leaks, it may well be both.
A reckless policy
Scrapping the two-child cap is a reckless policy. Handing an average of £5,310 to 560,000 larger families rewards personal choices while ignoring other households under the same cost-of-living squeeze. It’s unfair and risks encouraging inflation, making life even harder for everyone, including the poor.
Looking after their own
Most of the people affected will be Labour voters, so they are looking after their own if they make this change. However, taxpayers will not be amused, so they will probably lose votes overall. The people they are rewarding would probably vote for them anyway; the people they are ripping off will swing to some degree.
Savers want stability
Does Reeves really think that by cutting the ISA allowance it will change people's way of thinking? “Oh yes, we must immediately invest in stocks and shares.” Wrong. In these turbulent times, pensioners and savers want stability. This will have no effect other than to rub people up the wrong way. Sorry, but Labour haven’t a clue and you have lost my vote.
Chaos in messaging
So she's charging electric car drivers (which they want more of) while freezing the cost for petrol drivers (which they say they want less of). The usual chaos in messaging from this Tory-light government.
They should use a fix on the higher levels of tax (which would include me, for the record) to increase the lower level of tax, to bring more people out of poverty – not push even more there, as people with lower levels of income will now have to pay tax.
At least they say they are putting more money into the NHS and are getting rid of Police and Crime Commissioners.
We want more but won’t pay for it
People in this country constantly want more and more and more, but aren’t prepared to pay for it. We have lower taxes (still) than most Scandinavian countries, but we're constantly looking over at them and asking how they do it. You get what you're willing to pay for.
Reducing demand will reduce taxes
Reducing household incomes by an average of £1,250 by 2025–26 by deploying fiscal drag will reduce demand, which in turn will reduce taxes. Was there ever a more clownish government than this, which clearly needs to go because it can't work out the basic implications of its fiscal policy?
Penalising those who got an education
As predicted, Reeves is taxing workers and savers and handing over to those that don't. Another Labour Budget penalising those that got themselves an education, qualifications or useful skills to hand their taxes over to those that didn't bother.
This will take the tax burden on workers over 38%, a new record. Same old, same old with Labour… until, of course, workers get fed up with handing over more and more of their hard-earned cash.
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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